It mostly covers my work as UNISON Scotland's Head of Policy and Public Affairs although views are my own. For full coverage of UNISON Scotland's policy and campaigns please visit our web site. You can also follow me on Twitter. I hope you find this blog interesting and I would welcome your comments.

Tuesday, 6 June 2017

Not for the first time, energy policy has received
very little attention in this election campaign. In Scotland, key elements are
reserved so you might expect a bit more attention to be paid to it, rather than
debate devolved issues that MPs have no real say over.

The Tories are not proposing any major changes to
their current energy policy, other than over energy prices. The radical change
is in Labour's manifesto, which attacks privatisation and fuel poverty, based
on three key principles:

To ensure security of energy supply and ‘keep the
lights on’.

To ensure energy costs are affordable for consumers
and businesses.

To ensure we meet our climate change targets and
transition to a low-carbon economy.

None of these are particularly controversial; the radical meat
comes later in the manifesto.

Labour would introduce an immediate emergency price
cap to ensure that the average dual-fuel household energy bill remains below
£1,000 per year. The SNP manifesto also has a price cap commitment. This was
1970's socialism according to the Daily Mail, until the Tories started to use
similar language. In practice the Tory manifesto commitment has been diluted to
a targeted cap. So much so that the industry now welcomes it.

The big Labour idea is to take energy back into public
ownership to deliver renewable energy, affordability for consumers, and
democratic control. This will be done in stages, starting with the energy
supply networks license conditions. Then by creating locally accountable energy
companies and finally purchasing regional and national grids. As Stephen Hall,
from Leeds University notes, this is not quite as revolutionary as it
appears. This is happening in the US and Germany, often badged as
municipalisation. It is a long way short of command and control nationalisation.

To help tackle other aspects of fuel poverty, Labour
will insulate four million homes to help those who suffer in cold homes each
winter. This will cut emissions, improve health, save on bills and reduce winter
deaths. There should be Barnett consequentials for Scotland from this. Homeowners
will be offered interest- free loans to improve their property and Landlord
regulations will be changed in England. Labour is committed to similar measures
in Scotland. As the Energy Saving Trust says:

"There’s no sugar coating it. From a home energy point of view the Labour manifesto is much more encouraging than the Conservative one."

Labour will ban fracking because it would lock us into
an energy infrastructure based on fossil fuels, long after the point in 2030
when the Committee on Climate Change says gas in the UK must sharply decline.
Putting to one side the safety and environmental issues, we simply don’t need another
dirty fossil fuel. The Tories are proposing incentives in England to promote
fracking and the SNP are consulting over the current moratorium in Scotland.

Labour views emerging technologies such as carbon
capture and storage as the way to help to smooth the transition to cleaner
fuels and to protect existing jobs as part of the future energy mix. However,
the manifesto is silent on the role of gas plants in delivering flexible
generation. The current capacity market has not provided an incentive to build
new plants; instead it has delivered the dirtiest possible coal and diesel
generation.

The commitments to renewable energy projects,
including tidal lagoons, are viewed as part of Labour’s industrial strategy, to
create manufacturing and energy jobs, as well as contributing to climate-
change commitments. With backing from a Labour government, these sectors can
secure crucial shares of global export markets.

The Liberal-Democrats would also reverse Tory cuts to
support for wind farms and solar PV. They also support energy efficiency
measures. However, their support for community energy and new entrants into
energy retail are firmly wedded to market solutions.

Under a Labour government nuclear will continue to be
part of the UK energy supply, which puts them at odds with the SNP. Labour will
also seek to retain access to Euratom, to allow continued trade of fissile
material, with access and collaboration over research. As part of the Brexit
negotiations, Labour will prioritise maintaining access to the internal energy
market. This is also important to the SNP’s independence plans, which rely on
access to energy systems outwith Scotland.

The SNP energy policy is currently the subject of a
consultation and I have set out the UNISON response to that consultation here.
In the event of a hung parliament, outwith the Tories, most parties could
support the ambition in the paper and it is fair to say that Scotland has led
the way on cleaner energy. Its weakness is the shortage of specific actions and
milestones, a criticism shared by the renewables industry.

Most party manifestos express their support for
renewable energy and energy efficiency. The radical shift in this election is the commitment to
new ownership models in the Labour manifesto. The election of Labour government
this week would mean big changes for the sector.For a full comparison of the party manifestos on energy and climate change, see the Carbon Brief's helpful chart.Cross posted on Utilities Scotland.

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About Me

I am the Head of Policy and Public Affairs at UNISON, Scotland’s largest trade union.
I am a Board member at the Reid Foundation and Keir Hardie Society. Secretary of the Socialist Health Association Scotland. Past Chair of the Scottish Labour Party and SEC member.
Graduate in Law from University of Strathclyde. Fellow of the RSA.
I edit Utilities Scotland and Pensions Scotland and also regularly blog at Public Works, Red Paper, SHA Scotland and Revitalise Scottish Labour.